Sunrise: Remove Graffiti Within Three Days

COMMUNITY NEWS

SUNRISE — If a gang leaves graffiti on your walls, you may be punished for it.

Saying they are serious about cleaning up gang graffiti, city commissioners want to change the law to give property owners less time to remove the messages.

The City Commission tentatively approved a change on Tuesday night that would give property owners three days to erase graffiti, not the 10 days they now have. If the gang handiwork is not immediately removed, the city would paint the wall and bill the owner for the work. Fines would stay the same, up to $250 a day.

Commissioners are expected to ratify the change next month

One resident spoke against the change at Tuesday's meeting, saying it is unfair to treat the victim of graffiti as a criminal.

"It's an unreasonable request," resident Michael Kerner said.

But commissioners and City Attorney Jeff Olson said the only way to deter more graffiti is to get rid of it quickly. Olson said he checked other Broward cities and some of them also give property owners three days to remove graffiti.

"It's important to react quickly when this occurs because graffiti only breeds more graffiti," he said.

The city's Code Enforcement Department would enforce the new law. Building Director Chris Cotler, who oversees code officers, said the change would be difficult to enforce if the property has an absentee owner.

Currently, city workers remove graffiti on public property one or two days a week. If the law is passed, those workers could find themselves routinely painting walls on private property if the owners don't do it. And there's no guarantee the private walls will be in the same color if the city does not have the paint color. That means the property owner may have to repaint the wall to get the color wanted.

The new ordinance would offer a $250 reward for information that leads to the conviction of people charged with violating the anti-graffiti ordinance. It also would require stores that sell aerosol spray paint cans to post a notice that use of the cans to create graffiti is illegal.